


Customs

by Alexis_universe



Series: Orphan Connie AU [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Mourning, PTSD, Pizza
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-13 20:51:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9141721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexis_universe/pseuds/Alexis_universe
Summary: Since the incident, Connie adapts to the live with the Crystal gems.





	

A pair of months had happened since the Ocean city incident, and things were starting to normalize in the Temple. One of those things were the study sessions Pearl gave to Steven and Connie.

Due to Steven being a potential risk if left alone and far away from the Gems, and Connie being more or less declared dead or lost by the government, neither of them could go to a normal school.

So, The Crystal Gems had the obligation of teaching the children in basic stuff such as math, english language, history and science (Or that was what Greg told them.)

"That would be enough for today's lesson." Pearl said as she stored an English book inside of her gem.

"Awww..." Steven whined from his seat in his bed, Connie was sitting right next to him. "Why? I was really caught up by your lesson..."

"Because, Steven, I have to go on a mission with Garnet and Amethyst." She explained them. "And Garnet told us to meet her there after your lesson."

A sticky sound was heard from the temple's door as Amethyst left her room.

"Are ya ready P!?" The quartz said, a bit impatiently. "G's gonna hoard all the fun for herself if we don't hurry!!

"Coming!" She said to her teammate before returning to the children. "We might not return in a few hours, so you can do whatever you want until we come back. Okay?"

"Yes Pearl." They said in unison.

"All right then." She said before leaving Steven's room and heading to the warp pad.

The magical portal lit up as it sent Pearl and Amethyst to wherever they were going. However, it's activation delayed enough for Pearl to make a last announcement before leaving:

"There's money for pizza on the kitchen's counter!"

The light disappeared from the house, leaving the kids alone with themselves.

The silence that loomed over the house was broken by Connie, who gave Steven a playful look.

"You really like studying huh?" She said as she picked up the notebook next to her.

"I do!" He said. "When I grow up, I want to be a really smart person, like Pearl!"

"Well, with that enthusiasm you might be even smarter than her." She said.

"You really think so?" He asked.

"O-of course!" She said, a faint blush on her cheeks. "Most of the world's smartest people were really into Studying like you do."

Steven's face mirrored hers as his blood clustered around his cheeks.

"You must be one of them as well, Connie." He countered.

"All my teachers used to tell me the same." She said. "It's such a shame that I never got to know them for more than three months, though. They were fun to talk with."

"You didn't talked with any other kids?" He asked.

"Not really." She said, laying on her back over Steven's bed, fixing her pink, glassed spectacles on her face. "Most kids don't want to be around the nerdy kid who doesn't talk that much. Even less if said kid just moved in from another place."

"Connie, that's awful!" He said horrified.

"It's not that bad, Steven." She said. "I didn't liked to talk with them neither."

"Why?"

"I'm not sure." She said shrugging. "I probably was afraid of making friends."

Steven didn't pressed any further. As he knew that the constant moving in of her family was her reason to be afraid.

The house went silent for a second before Connie Lifted herself up from the bed and went downstairs.

"Where are you going?" The boy asked.

"I'm going to take a walk." She said from the living room. "You coming?"

Steven didn't thought it for a second before answering: "Sure!"

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"Hello mom." Connie said in front of her mother's grave, which was now covered by a thin layer of grass and some petals of the cherry tree that was blossoming behind the tombstone. Steven was next to her, sharing her solemn expression.

"How have you been? Well, I know you can't exactly talk to me, but..." She sighed. "You get the idea."

A light breeze grabbed some petals and dragged them across the air.

"I'm sorry for not being able to visit you since that day." She said. "But I couldn't find a moment without the gems asking me where I was going."

The wind seemed to convey the message of her deceased mother, as another breeze blew across the cliff.

"You would've liked them." She said. "They're the ones who found us under the rubble. They brought me to their house and took care of me."

A small smile formed on her lips as she looked at Steven.

"I even managed to make a friend." She told to the White tomb. "His name is Steven. He's a boy of my age, and lives with the Gems and me in the same house."

Connie took Steven by the arm and dragged him in front of the grave. She told him to present himself with a look.

"Umm... Hi, Mrs. Maheswaran." He said nervously. "I'm Steven, Connie's friend. I'm sorry for what happened to you and your husband."

Connie frowned a bit at the mention of her father. The Gems couldn't return for his body as there weren't any warp pads near the ruins of ocean city. Also there wasn't any guarantee that he was still there, as the entire city was still under the attack of the corrupted gems and suffering collateral damage from Alexandrite's attacks. If Mr. Maheswaran was fending off the creatures away from his family, then he was probably killed by them and the flames of Alexandrite burned his body to ashes.

The silence that followed was extremely uncomfortable, not even the wind dared to move. 

"But don't worry. We're taking good care of your daughter, ma'am." Steven said, breaking the silence. "She's a really nice person, and I'm glad that I got to meet her."

Connie smiled at him as she placed her hand over his shoulder.

"Well..." She said to the gravestone with a faint smile. "We need to go right now but I promise you that I'll come back later."

She looked back at Steven, who also bid his farewell.

"Me too." He said. "I could even bring my ukelele and play something for you next time, ma'am."

"She'll probably like it." Connie said as they began to walk down the hill where the tomb was placed. She turned around one last time before leaving, looking at the grave as another soft wind littered the place with more pink petals.

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The kids were on their way to the boardwalk, where they were going to buy some pizza to eat.

They entered the shop a minutes later, and asked for a pepperoni pizza with extra tuna, shrimp and avocado, and a Margherita with chicken and pepper.

They sat in one of the restaurant's tables while they waited for their order. Connie was looking at the fisherman decorations of the establishment and Steven was rambling about Connie's order.

"I can't believe that you didn't put any fish on your pizza, Connie!" He said.

"I don't think that putting fish next to pepperoni is a good idea." She said.

"Why?!" He said feigning offense.

"Cause fish is not supposed to be a pizza topping, Steven." She said.

He faked an offended gasp.

"Everything can be a pizza topping if you want, Connie." He said. "That's the same reason of why the Italians made pizza for: So everyone could be free of choosing what to eat on a crust bread."

This pulled out a giggle from Connie.

"I'm not really sure about that, but I'll take your word." She said. Steven was smiling in front of her.

The kids sat in silence for a couple of minutes, until Steven talked again.

"So... I wanted to ask you something." He said. "Why were you talking with your mom on her grave?"

Connie looked down at the white table in a wistful manner.

"It's... something my father used to do when we visited my grandmother's grave." She explained. "He once told me that when people die, they don't actually leave this world right away."

Steven sat up straighter on his seat, making his interest more apparent.

"Those people, are always watching their beloved ones, so they make sure that they are happy." She continued. "And they will always be next to them as long as the living remembers them."

"That's why I went to talk to mom earlier this morning." She said. "Dad told me that we should talk to them once in a while, to keep them company until they can finally rest."

"I see..." Steven said from his seat. "That's a nice custom, though. I didn't knew that something like talking with the dead was something people do."

She looked at him for a moment, asking herself a small question that lingered in her mind for a second before she asked it to Steven.

"The Gems mourn their dead, Steven?"

He took a moment to think of an appropriate answer, placing his hand under his chin pensively.

"I'm not sure." He said. "Whenever I want to ask for something like that, they tell me that they will tell me when my powers appear."

"Why?" She asked.

"They say that I'm not ready to know about gem stuff yet." He said.

Knowing that the conversation wouldn't go any further due to the lack of information, instead, they changed the subject until their pizza arrived.

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After returning from Fish stew pizza, The kids didn't did any significant stuff during the afternoon. They watched a cartoon that Steven liked watching (even though Connie didn't understood why would an entire kitchen cry about anything) and read one of the books that Amethyst had given to Connie. 

Connie had read up the first half of the book with Steven by her side, when she noticed that it was dark outside.

They ate a piece of the leftover pizza before going to their beds and rest for the night.

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It was past midnight in the temple, and Connie was deeply asleep in her room.

She was dreaming about her parents at first. Her subconscious was playing the memory of a small trip that her family had made to Empire city when her mom had a conference to assist, and when it ended, they spent the rest of their trip just wandering around the city and its attractions. However, midways her dream, it changed into a nightmare, turning into an extremely real repetition of the incident at Ocean city. Buildings and cars were on fire, guttural growls, roars and screams were hearable once again in the nightmarish memory. The dream ended quickly when she saw the face of her mother, moments before the rubble that pierced through her stomach collapsed over them.

Connie woke up shocked and gasping for air, her skin was covered in sweat and her bedsheets were crumpled and mangled around her.

"It was just a nightmare..." She whispered at herself as her breathing returned to normal.

She had been experiencing this dreams at random nights ever since the incident. The gems (particularly Pearl) said that it was normal for persons that had gone through some bad stuff. The gems also said that would do anything on their power to help her to deal with the dreams whenever they weren't out in a mission.

Connie released herself from the entangled bedsheets and sat on the edge of the bed. She considered to take a glass of milk, eat something less heavy for the stomach than a slice of pizza, and return to sleep.

She put on her glasses and walked towards the sliding door of her room and opened it silently, careful to not wake Steven up.

She stepped out of the small hall and saw said boy standing in front of the house's wooden door.

Connie wondered why would Steven be up so late in the morning, then, Steven spoke.

"Hi, mom."

The girl froze up in her place as she saw the boy talk to the painting of his mother that was hung up above the door.

"I know that you're not may be listening, but... just in the case you are... I wanted to tell you how I was doing." He said. "I moved in with the crystal gems a couple of months ago and they're really cool. I think that I can see why you were so friends with each other."

Connie Silently approached him, careful to not make any noise.

"There's also this girl, Connie." He said, freezing her once more at the mention of her name. "She came to live with us after she had a really bad accident." He quickly explained. "She lost both of her parents on it, but the Crystal Gems found her and saved her."

"She's really nice, she likes to read and play the violin, and she's also really smart and she sometimes tells me stuff about her family and how normal people do some stuff I didn't knew."

For a small moment, The crash of the waves was the only sound that was heard in the house until Steven talked again.

"I'd wish that you had got to meet her..." He said, Startling the girl that was a pair of meters behind him, who had stepped on a creaking floorboard, alerting Steven of her presence.

"Hi..." She said nervously as he turned around to see the source of the sound.

"Connie?!" He said, his cheeks red with embarrassment. "What are you doing up this late?" He noticed the faint tear marks (barely visible thanks to the moonlight that poured from the windows) on her cheeks and knew exactly what had happened. "Did you... had another nightmare?"

"Yes." She said.

"Did you, um... heard everything I said?"

She lowered her gaze with mild embarrassment. "Yes."

He took a few steps into the living room and sat on the couch. he beckoned Connie to sit next to him.

She did as he wanted, sitting right next to him. He sighed before he spoke again.

"My mom isn't actually dead, you know?" He said to Connie. "She gave up her physical form so I could have her gem when I was born."

"Maybe that's why none of the gems mourn her, they think that maybe she's still in here." Steven clutched at his belly, where his gem was. "But if there was someone else inside of my body, wouldn't I feel it?"

Connie couldn't find anything to say.

"This gem is the only remains of my mom, and it's always like this, dead and non-magical." He released a sigh before continuing. "I'm literally her grave."

"Do the gems know how you feel?" She dared to ask.

"No." He said. "They have so much hope in me, and I don't want to disappoint them."

They were in silence for a moment until Connie placed her head next to his shoulder.

"At least you have your dad." She said. "Mine's probably buried under a ton of rubble."

"I can always share him with you." He said.

"Thanks, but I think I'll pass." She said.

"Why?"

"I already have you guys." She said with a blush.

Steven's head leant towards hers. They were in that position until they fell asleep.

Connie didn't had another nightmare again that night.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Tell me if you liked it in the comments!


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